Chained Melody
by Po Xiao
Summary: If our memories are the chains that bind us, what is there to bind Namine? If no one has memories of you, do you really exist? [oneshot]


Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the concepts of the Kingdom Hearts games. I'm just playing with them, and then I'll put them back in their boxes, Mommy, I promise. I'm making no profit out of this story, and if you sue me, you'll only get a few lint balls. I wouldn't bother with it, really.

I do own this story, and plagurizing it would make you a sad, sad, creepy little person. It'd also make me angry, and I bite. So save yourself some rabies shots and don't even try to nick it, okay?

Currently unbeta-ed. If you'd like to volunteer for the position I'd love you forever.

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She was in that half state, somewhere between dreaming and waking. Her senses worked, but her brain and limbs were sluggish almost to the point of being unresponsive. That was probably why it took her so long to realize what was so out of place in the familiar semi-darkness of her bedroom.

Someone was crying.

Kairi stirred slowly, blinking sleep from her eyes to peer through mussed cranberry-colored hair. For a moment, she was back to before everything had happened – before she had watched the world be unmade then remade anew – when her greatest concern had been making sure her friends were all happy. "Selphie...?" she asked the darkness, propping herself up on her elbows, "are you homesick? You know I --"

_Wait._

Kairi's sight focused on the pale length of hair catching the soft sheen of moonlight through her bedroom window. The length and color were totally wrong for Selphie, and Selphie was her only female playmate on the Island. Kairi's eyes narrowed, fists clenching in the sheets. "Who are you?"

Tear-filled blue eyes turned to meet Kairi's suspicious ones. "I'm sorry... I didn't realize..." The strange intruder blinked slowly, causing another tear to roll slowly down her cheek. Kairi's expression softened slightly, seeing the silver marks of tear tracks across the other girl's face. "I... I wanted to see..."

Kairi pushed back her covers, swinging her feet down to sit up. "Hey, where did you come from?"

The girl's hands tightened, flattening a book to her chest, and let her eyes fall away from Kairi's. "Oblivion."

Kairi sat forward, propping her chin in her hand. "That's a funny answer. So... why are you crying?"

"My name is Namine..." The blonde looked up, eyes luminous in the moonlit dark. "I'm your shadow, Kairi." Sitting forward quickly, she continued, voice gaining urgency. The book, which Kairi could now tell was a sketchbook, fell to the floor, unnoticed by its owner. "I'm from the other side, from the paths that you didn't take --"

"Sora..." Kairi breathed, sliding off the bed to touch the revealed sketch almost reverently. "And Riku! How... Where are they?" Kairi grabbed for Namine's hands. Namine jerked back abruptly. "Don't!"

Kairi frowned, retracting her hand. "I won't hurt you..." Namine nodded, gathering her sketchbook close again. "I know you wouldn't. But... I don't know what would happen if you touched me..."

Kairi's frown deepened. "Why? Because you say... you're my shadow...?" Kairi tilted her head, watching Namine as the other girl nodded. "But..." Namine smiled faintly. "I am the dark that goes with your light. Your other self, I guess. The you that might have been, if not for..."

"Sora." Kairi smiled.

Namine smiled back, though her eyes welled with fresh tears. "Yes." The pale shadow rose, turning her back to the other. "I'm sorry... I just wanted to see for myself. What they fought so hard for. The girl who they wouldn't forget...I thought maybe..."

Namine laughed through her tears, but it was a low and painful sound rather than an expression of joy. "I thought maybe it couldn't hurt to pretend for a while that I was real..."

"Namine...?" Kairi whispered, not understanding the other's pain, but reaching out instinctively anyway. The fair haired girl sniffled one time, before straightening her shoulders. "You're very lucky, Kairi... Remember that out of tonight, at least..."

Namine leaned down, her eyes meeting Kairi's. Her pupils seemed abnormally large and black in the twilight within the room. There was the sound of something shattering, or perhaps closer to that of a chain breaking, and Kairi fell into that warm darkness.

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Kairi woke that morning stiff from sleeping on the floor. "Ah..?" Something crinkled beneath her weight as she sat up, and Kairi pulled it out from beneath her, looking at it curiously. She regarded the sketch of the boy who seemed to be sleeping inside a flower curiously. "Strange... who is this...?"

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A/N: No, this isn't the beginning of another fic... I have plenty on my plate with the two I'm working on right now. This plot bunny just came out of nowhere and started chewing on my ear. It wouldn't let go, so here's my suggestion of why Kairi seems to be forgetting Sora in the trailer for KHII. Tsk, tsk, Namine.


End file.
